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NEW YORK (
TheStreet) -- Can investors Washington-proof their portfolios? That was the question Jim Cramer asked on
"Mad Money" Wednesday as he tried to answer what everyone wants to know, "What should I own going into the looming government shutdown debate?".
Cramer said that investors can count on one thing: just as soon as the markets digest one bit of news, i.e. last week's
Federal Reserve announcement, it will immediately move onto the next bit of news, which, unfortunately, involves another lengthy debate over the debt ceiling, health care and a probable government shutdown.
But while some companies blame Washington for their misfortunate quarterly results, others, including
Apple (
AAPL), a stock Cramer owns for his charitable trust,
Action Alerts PLUS ,
Bed Bath & Beyond (
BBBY) and
Amazon.com (
AMZN), all had terrific things to say of late.
Indeed, Washington doesn't seem to have affected sales of home-related items like paint or furniture, nor autos or boats or even homes themselves, according to
Lennar (
LEN).
Cramer said the key is to buy international companies such as
Agco (
AGCO), which he highlighted last week.
General Motors (
GM) would also be a good pick, as would
EOG Resources (
EOG), he said, as the oil boom doesn't wait for Washington.
Cramer also said that aerospace remains strong, as are the casino names. Technology stocks including
Facebook (
FB), another Action Alerts PLUS name, are also impervious to Washington.
No portfolio can be completely Washington-proof, Cramer concluded, but investors can certainly improve their odds by going global and leave U.S. stocks behind.
Executive Decision: Jim Whitehurst
In the "Executive Decision" segment, Cramer spoke with Jim Whitehurst, president and CEO of
Red Hat (
RHT), the open-source software provider that saw its shares fall 11% earlier this week after Wall Street decided the company's 2-cents-a-share earnings beat and maintained guidance weren't enough to justify its valuation.
Whitehurst said there are multiple ways to look at growth, and the Wall Street community decided to look at only one of them -- billings. Unfortunately, billings offers an incomplete picture, he continued. As deal sizes surpass $10 million, many companies are choosing to pay over time rather than all upfront, which makes longer-term cash flows a more important number to look at, Whitehurst explained .
